T R I T O N E
- 32 pages -
 "Cacophony of Destruction"

p r o d u c t i o n n o t e s

Tritone is my first manga. 1994 Acidic.

The story is as the title indicates: the mutually manipulative relathionship between 3
parties: The musician, the manager, and yours truly, the demon muse.

The word, "tritone" means disharmony in musicology.

Now that I look back, the plot is sadly autobiographical, although at that time I didn't realize it. The story focuses on the autistic child, Salem, how he's orphaned by the demonic Muriel, in order to inherit the carcass symbol of the pact: the crystal violin.

Pacts made with demons are flesh for flesh, blood for blood. Muriel presents Salem with the meat part of the deal, the instrument divorced from the fiend's very being, in exchange for the child's heart/love. A twisted union of sorts.

Oh yeah, it's a vampire violin.

Each time before a performance, the instrument has to be fed. Bleed.
So the child gets the fame he doesn't deserve. The demon gets the extra life he dosn't have.

That should have been the perfect symbiosis, except the mangaer is feeding on this money tree/prodigy child. It's a capatalist USA after all. Which means, Muriel, for survival, has to play guardian to the child.The manager suspects something is afoot. The child resents both adults for their incessant watching.

So the circle closes tighter & tighter until all 3 parties suffocate.
Three is definitely a crowd.



This is Muriel
- character design -

<membrane wings.



<His wings are non-functional. They do not support flight. The outer insect shell is ugly, yet in a twisted way, both repulsive and beautiful.

I had fun spilling ink all over the paper.








This is towards the end, when Muriel gets a new pair of wings.
The new wings, this time, are real feathers. The wings are newly
born, so the feathers are wet & curly, like a hatched moth.

<< Click to see larger picture.

T R I T O N E
- 32 pages -
 " Be Silenced "


<This is the scene after concert, where Salem has to feed the instrument.
The instrument is mute without the blood.
The child is mute without the instrument.

This is where Salem contemplates suicide.


The child hates both of his captors; yet is terribly
dependent on them.


I rather like the big rose in the background.
A Big Red Rose that symbolizes drops of blood.

This page uses one entire sheet of screentone.
Portions are then shaved off to show light.

**It's true that there is no way a glass violin can produce nice sounds. But I made it glass, to represent the clear untainted part of Muriel, his angelic nature. The blood is needed to flesh out and made it warm & humanly. ^_^






T R I T O N E
- 32 pages -
 "Embrace"

e n d i n g n o t e s
<<The size of the page was very big for me at the time.
I'm uncomfortable with it, and it seemed endless to
try to fill up the space.

Nowadays, I don't fill in the space, but let the space work for me.

Also, it helps to not draw so tiny, like what I did here.

The screentone is one entire sheet, and it is a nightmare.
You can see where I stopped shaving away the tone
where the French windows are.

I don't want this pic to be too bright.



Above are some select pages from my book.
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